Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips - Willy Olsen - iPro Real Estate

10 Best Places to Retire in 2020

Warm weather and low taxes continue to have a big pull on where retirees choose to settle down in their golden years. Those pulls are prompting many older Americans to continue to relocate to popular retiree havens in the Carolinas and Florida.U.S. News & World Report recently identified the best places to retire using criteria including housing affordability, taxes, health care, and happiness surveys. They analyzed data from 125 of the

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Retailers to have Strong Holiday Spending Season

Retailers rejoice: The holiday spending season is expected to be a lively one this year, and brick-and-mortar stores remain a critical component to the shopping season.ICSC, a retail real estate researcher, forecasts a 4.9% increase in holiday spending over last year, reaching an $832.3 billion total. The average adult is expected to spend $683 on holiday-related items.Ninety percent of adults say they plan to shop in retail locations for gifts a

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Hottest Vacation Home Markets in Unexpected Spots

More consumers are feeling richer and that’s fueling a stronger vacation home market, shows the National Association of REALTORS®’ newly released 2019 U.S. Vacation Home Counties Report.“As of 2018, household net worth reached an all-time high of $100.3 trillion—that’s nearly double from a decade ago when wealth declined during the recession,” says Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Some of this tremendous growth in wealth, al

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HUD Expands Affordable Housing for Persons with Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced this week that it is allocating $112 million to expand the supply of permanent affordable housing to low-income people with disabilities. Funding is available through the Section 811 program.About half of the new funding will go toward the development of new supportive housing for people with disabilities. About $37 million also will go toward rental assistance, which will be availabl

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Midwest Markets show Momentum

Central metros dominated realtor.com®’s rankings of top-performing housing markets for September, claiming nearly half of its 20 spots. For the third consecutive month, Fort Wayne, Ind., landed first on the list.Realtor.com® bases its monthly hottest market rankings on the metros that are seeing some of the quickest sales in the nation as well as those that are garnering the most views of listings at realtor.com.Thirteen of the

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Lights Go Out for Hundreds of Thousands of Californians

Tens of thousands of households and businesses went dark in California overnight. Unprecedented power outages are sweeping across the state as the utility company Pacific Gas & Electric leverages the blackouts to try and prevent wildfires from spreading.With strong winds forecast for California mixed with hot and dry conditions, PG&E is taking the precautionary move to curb wildfire risk by shutting off power to thousands. About

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Homeowners’ Top DIY Mistakes

Many homeowners attempting to save money on household projects are turning to DIY projects. But do-it-yourself fixes can be costly, shows a new survey from Clovered, a home insurance company.Eighty-seven percent of more than 1,000 homeowners recently surveyed admitted to making a mistake while attempting a do-it-yourself home improvement project. The median amount spent on fixing those DIY mistakes was $137.50, the survey showed. Millen

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New Appraisal Exemption Rule Takes Effect Today

Certain home sales of $400,000 and below will no longer require an appraisal, under a new rule that takes effect today. Homes that qualify for the appraisal exemption can receive an evaluation instead.This is the first time in 25 years that federal regulators have increased the property value limit of the homes that require an appraisal as part of the selling process. Federal regulators cited price appreciation in residential real estate transact

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California Tightens Up on Rent Control

Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law this week a measure that would cap rents throughout the state, a move that the real estate industry has warned could have dire long-term consequences.The law limits annual rent increases that landlords can enact on tenants in the state to 5% after inflation. The new limit will take effect in January.Lawmakers said the rent cap was driven by skyrocketing affordability in the state. Fifty-five percent of ren

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Senior Housing Wealth Surges to Record High

Homeowners 62 and older are feeling richer thanks to homeownership. Senior housing wealth grew by 0.5%, or $32 billion, in the second quarter, on top of a cumulative $7.17 trillion reached in the first quarter of 2019, the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association reports.The increase in senior homeowners’ wealth was mainly driven by an increase in home values.“Many retired and soon-to-be-retired Americans lack financial assets for a comf

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